


Coffee and Tea

by RABunzai



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, Natasha Romanov Joins SHIELD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 10:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8485231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RABunzai/pseuds/RABunzai
Summary: At the same time Natasha Romanoff joins SHIELD, the Black Widow defects.Clint Barton doesn't have any words but he has hot drinks and that's just as good.





	

 

 

At the same time Natasha Romanoff joins SHIELD, the Black Widow defects.

Like the arrow wound in her side, it’s a little bit painful and will probably leave a scar. 

With defection comes a multitude of paperwork and debriefs and poorly disguised trust exercises. Once she’s finished those, defection ends and recruitment begins and she finds herself required to complete an…orientation of sorts.

SHIELD’s not stupid enough to put her through the academy amidst their young and impressionable recruits and so her probationary period is restricted to light duties, the majority of her time spent in isolation learning SHIELD’s many protocols and doctrines.

She’s allowed unaccompanied access to parts of the base and begins to spend her mornings searching out different spots, tucking herself away and reading through the heavy tome that is the official SHIELD field manual. It’s tedious and a little bit lonely but not wholly unwelcome.

Her reading on the proper protocol for munitions recovery is interrupted when a steaming paper cup pokes itself under her nose. She takes it from Barton with a raised eyebrow but he merely shrugs, flashing her a playful grin before throwing himself down into the chair opposite, his own cup cradled in his palm.

The coffee is bitter and she sips at it between pages. Barton lounges in his chair watching the world outside the window and seemingly content to let her read and read and read. Finally when she decides herself done for the day he reaches across and picks up her half filled cup with a tiny tug at the corner of his mouth.

It becomes a routine of sorts. She never tells him when she’ll be there but most days he finds her and brings her a takeaway coffee that’s sometimes bitter and sometimes burnt and always left half empty. When she finishes the field manual she starts reading communication codes and equipment data sheets. He starts bringing a bag full of arrows and sits in his chair gluing together dark colored fletches and occasionally his fingers.

On a morning just like any other he places a familiar takeaway cup in front of her. She finishes a paragraph on SHIELD’s media policy (no comment) and reaches for her drink but halts the cup an inch from her nose, the scent of lemon and sugar making her pause. She looks at him but he remains engrossed in arrow maintenance.

She takes a sip and the tea is warm and sweet on her tongue.

When she finishes he reaches across to grab her empty cup and slides it inside his own. A soft smile, warm and sweet like her tea pulls at the corner of her lips.

 

At the same time the Black Widow defects, Natasha Romanoff joins SHIELD.


End file.
